


Shinobi Academy studies

by tucuxi



Series: Through the looking-glass: Naruto genderswap!AU [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Genderbending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-26
Updated: 2011-01-26
Packaged: 2017-10-16 21:02:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/169324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tucuxi/pseuds/tucuxi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iruka, ages five to ten.  Iruka attends the Shinobi Academy and learns some things they might not be aware they're teaching.</p><p>Part of the <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/series/6842">Through the Looking-Glass</a> genderswap AU universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shinobi Academy studies

Iruka doesn’t remember a time before she had her scar. It’s always been there, like the Inuzuka have marks on their cheeks, and the Aburame have holes for bugs to crawl in and out (Iruka finds this _fascinating_ ). And on the whole, appearance isn’t all that terribly important to Iruka and her friends: they’ve got hidden forts to build, and imaginary missing-nin to catch, and a whole bunch of pranks to play on older siblings and parents and teachers. So once in a while Iruka remembers it’s there, but most of the time her face is just her face.

Iruka tries to be a good girl, but it’s hard: she forgets which way to hold her chopsticks, or how polite she’s supposed to be to whom, and even when she tries her best, she often ends up coming home covered in mud. Her father ruffles her hair, and grins; her mother almost-smiles and hustles Iruka off to the bath.

Every so often she hears her grandmother arguing with her mother about her. But they always stop talking when she comes into hearing, even if she hides really well like she’s learning at school. “I’m not subjecting her to that,” her mother might say, or “She doesn’t need to worry about these things yet.” Then she’ll straighten up and call Iruka over, scooping her up into her lap and planting a kiss on the bridge of Iruka’s nose, like she always does.

“Your father was just like this, you know,” her mother tells her once, “quite the little spitfire.” Iruka grins and leans her head back so her mother can rinse the mud out of her hair. “Although,” her mother continues, fingers hitting a snag, “I don’t believe he was quite this good at getting tree sap in his hair.”

* * *

When Iruka is six, and has been in the Academy for a little under a year, the top boy in her class graduates, and then takes the chuunin exams. Their teacher tells them when he passes the first two tests, and passes the third one and makes chuunin, and then they don’t hear about him anymore. Iruka is sorry he’s gone: he was nice, and once in a while he made really fantastic jungle gyms grow out of the ground, if she asked nicely enough.

When she asks her parents about him a few months later, they look sad for a moment, and then Iruka’s father picks her up and tells her he’s probably doing his best to protect Konoha, like he and her mother do. Privately, Iruka is sort of glad she gets to stay in school with her friends a little longer: her parents’ jobs sound much less interesting than school. She doesn’t tell her parents that: it seems unworthy of a shinobi of Konoha. With time, her memories of him fade and blur, becoming just another boy on the playground.

* * *

Over the next few years, Iruka learns a lot of things in her classes at the Academy. She learns the shinobi code, the chakra system how chakra is generated, the names and capitals and hidden villages of all the nations around Fire Country, (even the ones they’re at war with!) and lots about Konoha’s history; she learns to identify a genjutsu, to kick fast and hard, and to summon weapons with a scroll; she learns all the hand-signs and which ones are associated with which elements.

Iruka also learns other things. She learns that she’s smart, but that the teacher won’t call on her first, and that she has to practice hard to keep up with the rest of the class at taijutsu and ninjutsu.

She learns that the Uchiha really are the elite, that the Aburame and the Inuzuka can track _anyone_ , and that you should never let a Hyuuga hit you in a fight, not even once. She learns that the Yamanaka really can read your mind, and that you never take the last piece of food from an Akimichi. And, gradually, Iruka learns that she’s nothing special: she has no family jutsu, and no bloodline limit. Iruka is never going fight alongside a spectacularly well-trained dog (like Hige will) and she’ll never be able to take over people’s minds (like Inoyagi’s uncle is teaching him). She’ll never be able to see all the way around her like the Hyuuga do, or learn jutsus just by looking at them, the way so many Uchiha can. Iruka is absolutely and entirely ordinary.

Iruka tells herself she doesn’t mind. But when they’re ten, Tekka comes into school one day and shows off his Sharingan. At school, Iruka grins and teases him and asks him to do tricks along with everyone else. “The best part --” he says, showing them how he can memorize pages with just a glance, “-- is I totally won’t have to study for tests anymore!”

When her mother gets home, she finds Iruka staring out the window in her room, chin on her knees. Tekka was one of the few kids in Iruka’s class whose overall grades were routinely worse than hers, because he was too lazy to practice or to study for tests. Iruka knows she works harder than he does, but now that he has the Sharingan, it won’t matter anymore.

“It’s not fair,” Iruka mumbles, knowing that it’s a stupid thing to say: no one expects the world to be fair. “Fair” is for stories and civilians and children. Ninja know better.

Her mother gives her a hug, and pulls her downstairs to help her finish her ikebana assignment. When they’re done, it’s a pretty little bouquet that promises everlasting friendship and devotion, and the edges don’t look at all straggly or rough. Then they put together a smaller bouquet from the leftover flowers. It doesn't mean much of anything, really, but it's pretty.

When Iruka's father gets home, they have dinner together, and then the three of them go outside and practice: her father is working on an advanced ninjutsu, so Iruka’s mother helps her with her shuriken training. Tomorrow evening her dad will help Iruka, and her mother will practice alone: that’s how the days work, unless one of her parents is called away to an unexpected shift for the Advance Guard, or a short mission.

* * *

The Kyuubi’s attack changes everything.


End file.
